1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a passive residual heat removal system used as one of emergency safety facilities and a nuclear power plant including the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A residual heat removal system is an emergency safety facility for removing sensible heat in a reactor coolant system and residual heat in a reactor core during an accident. In particular, the passive residual heat removal system removes sensible heat and residual heat in a passive manner using natural forces.
For a coolant circulation method of the passive residual heat removal system, two methods such as 1) a method of directly circulating reactor primary coolant to cool a reactor (AP1000: U.S. Westinghouse) and 2) a method of circulating secondary coolant using a steam generator to cool a reactor (SMART reactor: Korea) are mostly used. In, addition, 3) a method of injecting primary coolant to a tank to directly condense it (CAREM: Argentina) is partially used.
For a passive residual heat removal system to which a secondary coolant circulation method is applied, two types such as 2-1) a mode to which a pressurized makeup tank is applied and both directions of a steam line and a feedwater line of the passive residual heat removal system are isolated with an isolation valve during a normal operation (Korean Patent Application No. 10-2000-0067089), and 2-2) a mode to which gravity water head makeup tank is applied and only one direction of a feedwater line of the passive residual heat removal system is isolated with an isolation valve (IRIS: U.S. Westinghouse, SMART reactor: Korea) are used.
Furthermore, for a method of cooling an outside of a heat exchanger (condensation heat exchanger), 1) a water-cooled method (AP1000) applied to most reactors, 2) a partially air-cooled method (WWER 1000: Russia), and 3) a water-air hybrid cooled method (IMR: Japan) have been used. A heat exchanger of the passive residual heat removal system performs a function of transferring heat received from a reactor to an outside (atmosphere) through an emergency cooling tank (heat sink) or the like, and condensation heat exchangers using a steam condensation phenomenon with an excellent heat transfer efficiency have been mostly used for a heat exchanger method.
A steam generator performs a function of receiving heat in a reactor coolant system to produce steam, and supplying the steam to a turbine system. Furthermore, a secondary side of the steam generator is used as a supply source for producing steam in a passive residual heat removal system. The passive residual heat removal system performs a very important function for removing sensible heat and residual heat in a reactor during an accident. However, the passive residual heat removal system is generally known to exhibit a big difference in the cooling performance according to a coolant flow of the secondary side including the steam generator.
In particular, a once-through type steam generator configured to receive feedwater to a tube side to produce superheated steam in the tube may exhibit a large different secondary water level in the steam generator according to a power operation state of the nuclear power plant. Furthermore, a flow of the passive residual heat removal system during an accident is affected by a time point at which the discharge of steam is suspended or the supply of feedwater is suspended by related signals (valve closed or pump stopped) during the accident. As described above, a coolant flow at a secondary side including the steam generator is affected by an initial water level of the steam generator and a time point at which steam discharge or feedwater is stopped, and the like, and if the coolant flow is unable to maintain an appropriate flow level, it is difficult to accomplish the target performance of the passive residual heat removal system.
Furthermore, a gravity or pressurized makeup tank is provided in the passive residual heat removal system, and those makeup tanks is provided to make up a flow when the flow is insufficient. However, a conventional makeup tank is configured to supply a flow even when the flow is sufficient in a system, thus rather acting as a cause of deteriorating the performance of the passive residual heat removal system.
Non-condensable gas in connection with the present disclosure performs the role of preventing flow and condensation in a heat exchanger such as a condensation heat exchanger to act as a cause of significantly deteriorating the performance of the heat exchanger. A patent associated with a vent system in a passive residual heat removal system associated therewith is disclosed in KR Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2001-0076565. In this patent, it is disclosed a line valve connected to a line subsequent to a main steam isolation valve from an upper portion of a condensation heat exchanger to remove non-condensable gas. However, the patent does not disclose a specific pressure drop scheme, and a connection line is provided subsequent to the main steam isolation valve, and as a result, if the isolation valve of the exhaust line is not closed when the passive residual heat removal system is operated during an accident, then there is a possibility in which the coolant of the passive residual heat removal system is lost through the exhaust line to cause a serious accident.
On the other hand, a steam line of the passive residual heat removal system has a relatively large volume, and the passive residual heat removal system to which a method of opening the steam line is applied is operated in a state that the steam line is open during a normal operation. Accordingly, as the normal operation of a nuclear power plant continues, light non-condensable gas may be accumulated in the steam line. As a result, when an accident requiring the operation of the passive residual heat removal system occurs, the accumulated non-condensable gas may flow into the condensation heat exchanger to prevent steam condensation to cause the performance degradation of the condensation heat exchanger. In consideration of the effect, it is designed in such a way that a condensation heat exchanger capacity of the passive residual heat removal system is conservatively large. However, as a high pressure (for example, SMART reactor: 17 MPa) facility, the passive residual heat removal system has a problem of significantly increasing the cost due to an increase of capacity. Furthermore, as a high-temperature high-pressure facility, the reactor restricts rapid cooling to alleviate thermal shock other than a normal operation and a partially restrictive accident. Accordingly, there is a limit in designing that the capacity of the condensation heat exchanger is conservatively too large.